Finally: Andray Blatche signs with Chinese team

Andray Blatche rumors have swirled this offseason, but he still hasn’t found a home. Photo by Rob Abruzzese.

Andray Blatche signs with Chinese team: Andray Blatche has finally signed a deal, but it isn’t with an NBA team. Instead, Blatche has signed a one-year deal with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers, his agent, Andy Miller of ASM Sports, announced on Saturday. The deal will reportedly land Blatche $2.5 million after taxes, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Everyone knows the deal with Blatche. He’s very talented and has averaged 18.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per 36 minutes in two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets. The problem is everything else that comes with Blatche.

When the Washington Wizards amnestied Blatche after the 2011-12 season, everyone in the league passed on him. Eventually Billy King and Avery Johnson took a chance on him and it really motivated him. He was great with the Nets on the court, but he has continued to have problems away from it.

In Jan. 2013, a woman was sexually assaulted in Blatche’s hotel suite. Blatche wasn’t a suspect and wasn’t charged, but it did happen in his suite. The next year the Nets gave him “personal leave” which was actually an unofficial suspension for poor conditioning and partying too much.

So Blatche is in the same spot he was in 2012 where nobody wants to give him a chance. The Nets like his talent, but they have decided that he is too much of a headache and never even negotiated a contract with him this offseason. His name has been connected to a few other teams, the Heat, Clippers, Raptors, Pelicans, the Hornets and even the Rockets, but ultimately everyone felt the same way as the Nets and none of them offer him a contract.

This isn’t the end of Blatche in the NBA, though, and was actually a shrewd move by him considering the position he is in. He will earn $2.5 million and he’ll be a free agent again by March which is when the Chinese Basketball Association’s season ends. That would leave him free to sign with any NBA team just before the playoffs get started. The Flying Tigers were motivated to sign Blatche because they think that he could be the final piece to their quest for a championship. Its likely some NBA team will think the same come March.

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